Basically, a spectrometer is an optical device which uses a prism, diffraction grating or interferometer to separate light into its constituent parts. With a spectrometer, scientists and others are able to study matter by analyzing the spectrum produced by light passed through the matter. This has provided scientists and others with a powerful analytic tool. Unfortunately, limitations with spectrometers themselves have hindered the use of spectroscopy.
For example, many spectrometers utilize mechanically moving parts to control the transmission of light. These parts are subject to failure from repeated use and have inherent speed limitations. Additionally, spectrometers have traditionally lacked the ability to simultaneously display and analyze sample and reference beams. As a result, errors are often introduced by the sequential display and analysis. Even further, heretofore spectrometer have not effectively compensated for attenuation losses during display and analysis and have required complicated electronics and software to separate the desired signals from the noise in the detection systems.